Read Online The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville - Free Book Online

anyway. We had crossed some line—a line like the one we had crossed when we first entered the hallway.
    Now we were somewhere else.
    But
where
?
    We kept running. I heard a shout behind us. When I looked over my shoulder, I was so startled that I stumbled and would have fallen if Melisande had not pulled me back to my feet.
    Though the corridor stretched behind us, it didn’t go all the way back to the stairs, or even back to the place we had stepped through when the bookshelf had lifted out of the way. Instead, it ended at a shimmering wall of black. I figured that must mark the place we had passed when I felt that weird jolt.
    Now, to my horror, that black wall began to bulge. Something from the other side was slamming against it. I could hear angry shouts. The blackness seemed to be stretching, getting
thinner
.
    Melisande yanked me forward.
    â€œDon’t sssstop!” hissed the snakes on her head.
    And then we were there. The Starry Door.
    There was no mistaking it. It was as black as the wall behind us, as if we were in some sort of long capsule, with a black wall at each end. But unlike the wall we had already come through, which was solid black, this wall was marked with a circle of stars that pulsed with silver light. The Wentar paused, glanced behind us. I heard a shout and turned to look, too.
    The wall behind us had been sliced to tatters by thick, glittering claws. But the tatters themselves still had power, because the creature on the other side was struggling with them, trying to get through. I caught a glimpse of a face—large eyes and a bulging purple snout, with big fangs thrusting up from its lower jaw—that was both fierce and frightening.
    The creature let out a cry of rage that seemed to scrape along my soul.
    â€œHurry!” cried Gaspar. “Hurry!”
    The Wentar ran his fingers over the circle of stars, touching them in an order I couldn’t make out. With a musical shimmer, the door opened, revealing a great black void sprinkled with stars. I expected to be sucked through, destroyed instantly. But as if the stars themselves were only an image on a curtain, the Wentar reached forward and touched one.
    â€œI want to go
there
,” he said, speaking to the door. Then he turned to us and said, “Follow me.”
    He stepped forward. The black void rippled and seemed to swallow him.
    Gaspar followed at his heels. Ludmilla went next; fluttering after her brother, she disappeared into the darkness. Then Albert stepped through, with Sarah still flung over his shoulder.
    â€œWait!” I cried.
    It was too late; they were gone.
    I glanced behind me. The creature I had seen before was pushing its way through the tattered black ribbons that were all that remained of the barrier. Though they clung to him and tried to hold him back, it was clear he would be free of them in seconds. Behind him were more of his kind, growling and snorting.
    Then the monster locked eyes with me. I felt a coldness, and a strange glimpse of terror to come. I stood, frozen, like some helpless prey in the eyes of a great hunting beast.
    â€œWe musssst go!” cried Melisande, yanking my hand.
    The spell was broken. Turning, I followed her through the Starry Door.
    Â 
    I FELT AS IF I were being stung by a thousand bees and kissed by a thousand butterflies, all at the same time.
    My body was still tingling when I realized I was standing in a green field dotted with little red flowers. The moment of comfort I felt when I saw this didn’t last very long. Though the field was green, what grew on it was not like any grass I had ever seen. It looked more like a lawn of two-inch-high broccoli. It was the same with the flowers: Though clearly
like
flowers in general, they were just as clearly unlike any flowers I had ever actually seen. (And as the son of two florists, I’ve seen more than my share of flowers.) The stiff red petals that radiated out from the bumpy centers had a metallic